As OpenAI and Anthropic race toward public markets, a potential AI pricing war could reshape enterprise adoption and profitability.
IPO-bound OpenAI is considering significant price cuts for its AI services as it prepares for a potential pricing war with rival Anthropic, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.
The company is weighing reducing the price of tokens, which are the units used to measure and bill AI usage, as executives anticipate that Anthropic could make similar moves. The discussions are ongoing, and no final decision has been made, the report added.
The deliberations come as businesses increasingly scrutinize their spending on AI tools. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently acknowledged that the cost of using AI has become a major concern for customers and said the company is exploring ways to deliver more value while reducing costs for users.
Any broad-based price cuts could put additional pressure on the finances of both OpenAI and Anthropic. Despite rapid revenue growth, the companies continue to spend heavily on computing infrastructure and chips needed to train and run advanced AI models, resulting in substantial losses.
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According to OpenAI President Greg Brockman, the maker of ChatGPT is projected to spend $50 billion on computing in 2026.
The reported move reflects intensifying competition between the two AI firms in the enterprise market. Anthropic has gained momentum in recent months, driven by the popularity of its coding product, Claude Code, among software developers.
OpenAI was last valued at $852 billion and is generating roughly $24 billion in annualized revenue, while Anthropic recently reached a $965 billion valuation and is estimated to be running at nearly $47 billion in annualized revenue.
OpenAI’s coding agent Codex has grown rapidly, surpassing 5 million weekly active users, according to the company, as its use extends beyond software development to broader workplace tasks.
At the same time, some companies are beginning to question whether their growing AI bills are generating sufficient returns. The debate has fuelled discussion in Silicon Valley around tokenmaxxing—the practice of consuming large amounts of AI computing resources in pursuit of productivity gains that may not always translate into financial benefits.
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A potential price war could test whether AI companies can sustain their current business models.
The competition is also unfolding as both companies prepare for eventual public listings.
OpenAI confidentially filed for an initial public offering earlier this week, following Anthropic’s own confidential IPO filing. Altman has reportedly told employees that OpenAI aims to go public within the next year, although the company said it still has initiatives it would prefer to pursue while remaining private.
